


I Will Be The Fire That Keeps You Warm

by plasticpumpkins



Category: Chronicle (2012)
Genre: Body Horror, Canon Rewrite, Gen, glow kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 18:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8337895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plasticpumpkins/pseuds/plasticpumpkins
Summary: Instead of a lightning strike, Steve and Andrew begin to glow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Can we pretend this makes sense?   
> (Title taken from 'Slow Dancer' by Noah Gundersen)

He’s somewhere that silences the usual ring of chatter and traffic. Up here, between clouds and heartache, there is darkness. It hides the scowling, regretful face of Andrew Detmer but the rain will not silence the thundering pulse beneath the sleeves of his jacket. He had feared the storm long before this day, but now, as he swallows around the dry feeling in his throat, the fear from his childhood warps into a newly composed terror. He is drowning, and yet the water does not reach him. He finds himself underneath the surface and above it simultaneously - stuck in place. 

When Steve Montgomery’s unsteady voice bellows from below, he finds the panic rising like ocean tides in his stomach. He can feel the tragedy before it happens, so he lies to Steve - and himself. This has happened before, he knows, this is not the first time he has built a wall around himself. When his voice shakes, the thunder riles up the power in the core of his being. He has never felt more insincere in his life, but this is what it takes to destroy yourself. You have to pretend. You have to lie until you believe. 

The pain blossoms like those on cherry trees, but without the immense beauty behind it. There was nothing romantic about the frantic beat of their hearts syncing up. Andrew can feel the worry in Steve’s chest, it is as if they are connected by red and blue yarn, entangled and strung out. He blames himself for the empathy in the other boy’s chest, but the voice in his head is not his own. It is the echo of his father’s slurred speech, taunting him and luring him further away from the levitating hand reaching out for his trembling body. Steve pleads for him, but the doubt swallows him whole. 

There is a paralyzing moment where time stops, and a peculiar buzzing sound begins to fill their ears with static. They lock eyes in the solar wave of tension, waiting in a deceptive solitude for the end to come. They’re hundreds of feet above the ground, lost and unable to be found. Andrew lifts a heavy arm towards Steve, his limbs seemingly filled with sand, as the world remains paused. Steve reaches out for him, and when he finds the distance to be too vast, he forces himself through the condensation of an unimaginable silence. They are close to being still themselves, but they are too desperate. 

It is as if they’re moving through a thick bog, both terrified of sinking and yet still forcing their bodies to fight the bounds of time. When the tips of their fingers graze, there is an unbelievable second where the world takes a shuddering breath inwards and explodes with life between them. Without warning, a violent red light flickers in their palms, and then proceeds to trace along with the blood running through their veins. A bright glow emits from beneath their clothes, projecting outwards. 

Andrew gasps, ripping his right hand through the air to clutch it to his chest with his left. Panic spurs like fireworks, much like the appearance of their bodies hovering in the darkness of night. A guttural noise escapes Steve’s mouth like he had been burned, but he does not move. It looks like he struggles to breathe, which only prods the anxiety in the other boy’s stomach further. The light doesn’t dare falter, it only burns and burns until it is spilling from beneath the hem of their clothes - casting away the midnight shadows. 

Andrew watches, in slight awe, as the glimmering brightness shows red beneath his exposed skin. He frowns down at his hands, noting the irregular pattern of the blue veins crisscrossing in his wrists. He can see the bones of his fingers, inked and outlined by dark, blurred lines that even the light within him couldn’t smother. Along with the accumulating fear in his chest, there is admiration - a lack of shock. 

He looks up to find a startling blue color surrounding Steve like a halo above his head. In the palms of his hands, in the hollows of his cheekbones, running down the slope of his neck - the color is everywhere, making him stand out like a night light in the hallway of an empty home. He has never looked more angelic, despite the confusion and subtle fire slithering like morphine in their bloodstream. It does not feel real, but they come together anyways. 

They move shakily through all the open space, held up by nothing but raw power, and collide together in a burst of color. The warmth that consumes them is like no other, devouring the chemical imbalance and physical pain with a dizzy hesitancy. It stops raining, but they do not move. They merely glow above the clouds, pressed tightly together, letting the light flow between them as it pleases.


End file.
